If it were a valid argument then anytime the County (or any part of government) took any step that did not increase the value of property you own at the rate you planned for it to grow, it would be a wrong that needed to be righted. But it just isn’t. You invest hoping that the asset appreciates. There are no guarantees.

Exactly. We are not sure why those Commissioners persist in pretending that they care about decent planning. They should just be honest and say they don’t care if the entire county is covered in sprawl and has no possible way to pay to maintain the needed services. . . oh wait, we already don’t have enough money because of the Commission’s horrible planning, lack of concern about spreading sprawl, and bending over backwards to ignore good governance.

It is all about choices. Last week the County Commission continued its longstanding practice of making bad choices that will just increase the cost in the future. Ask yourself: did you really think they wouldn’t approve more sprawl beyond the urban service area?

We have held out hope that someday they may actually care about the mess they have created and are creating and change their ways to actually provide decent governance. We keep hoping, but we are not blind to the fact that, as a group, they show no signs of doing so, or even considering it.

— Dunkin

As many know, Tampa now has a Burger King downtown completely with a surface parking lot and drive through. It is completely against the idea of what downtown is supposed to be developing into, but that is Tampa. No one ever bothered to fix the code, and no City Council approved the Burger King. The City just doesn’t care enough.

She should have said, “Don’t Tampa St. Pete.” Really, we don’t care about Burger King as a chain (there used to be a Burger King on Franklin Street that was fine). We care about the building they are in and whether it helps or hinders having a proper downtown now and in the future. And whether downtown should have drive-through restaurants at all (they shouldn’t).

It is all about choices. St. Pete made the right one. Tampa made the wrong one.

Transportation – Potpourri

Would it be a week here without it?

— Bus Plan, Another Editorial

The Times ran another editorial about the bus plan. (here) Here is the core:

We are not sure what the editorial is actually talking about. The conversation was reset by people who pointed out the faults after local officials lauded the plan at the unveiling. That was the first feedback. As for feedback in the future, we hope it is, but in this area most conversations about transit get completely muddled, if not hijacked.

The place to start a conversation about the plan is to say why it is good other than being cheap. And, even setting aside the fact that the flaws have been pointed out clearly, the burden of the argument is on those in favor of the plan. We are still waiting.

— USF Area Circulator

Somewhat related, there was an article in the Times about a long rumored USF (Tampa) area circulator:

Of course, part of the reason the area is gridlocked is because the grid is not really a grid at all. Most traffic is forces onto a few arterial roads where basically everything has been built for cars. There is little chance for anyone to walk on Fowler or Bruce B. Downs (Fletcher is a little better in places, but just a little). But we’ll set that aside for a minute:

That’s all fine. We are not clear why the County Commission and FDOT are being stingy (they should want there to be relatively cheap transit), but having private partners is fine. The conditions and lack of enthusiasm also shows us the issues that will arise making any sort of express bus plan relevant to most people. Without the circulators, the express bus plan won’t work, but the County and FDOT are not all in on circulators in the first place.

We are sure some people will find circulator useful and ride, especially on good point to point connections and especially people who cannot drive. Whether putting some small shuttles (which is what it sounds like now) on Fowler will really make a dent in traffic and congestion is another question, not to mention the fact that the circulator will be in said traffic. In any event, URBN Tampa Bay was pretty much on the mark with their comments (including the comment on the ineffability of the organization’s name, which we do not quote):

Without knowing more it is hard to really assess the circulator’s potential – and to see if, at some point in the future, it could serve as the actual connection between the express buses and USF. Maybe it can, maybe it can’t. Hopefully, they will at least try to use best practices for an urban system.

— Actual BRT

Meanwhile, St Pete is pushing forward with a plan that is actual BRT, for the most part.

This really isn’t that complicated: having a dedicated lane is necessary to be “gold standard” but does not by itself make it “gold standard.” There are other factors.

Nevertheless, as we said, at least the St. Pete plan is actually BRT for the most part, as opposed to the Regional Transit Feasibility Study express bus plan. And it is a route that makes sense and runs on arterial roads, so there is a possibility of actually having at least some development along the route.

In fact, while we are fine with asking for Federal money, we are unsure why Pinellas/St. Pete does not seem to have a contingency plan to just pay the extra $20 million. Hopefully they do have such a plan and are not telling. We shall see.

There has been far too little discussion of the actual utility and possible implementation of consolidation, but now (unless someone can get the Governor to kill it) it has to be made to work. That will require cooperation, good will, and focus on the students.

There was another odd article in the Times last week that we think is actually tied into the multi-campus, separate accreditation, amorphous structure of USF (and, no, it wasn’t the aborted plan to build a giant Picasso, which we think they should have done. They really couldn’t raise the money? We’re not that surprised.):

Rebranding is always tough, even if it is needed. (Just ask people trying to promote the Tampa Bay area.) Have you ever noticed that Alabama, USC, Michigan don’t change their football uniforms? Why? Because they are (or at least have been) successful (yes, in football, but it is something recognizable) and created a real brand. Everyone knows what they are instantly. USF is a little vaguer.

Setting aside that Florida (1853) is about 100 years older than USF (1956), the whole Gator Nation slogan is largely irrelevant. Florida is old, highly ranked, not regional, well-connected and has enthusiastic alumni. And “direction” schools always have a disadvantage. The article goes into some of the history, which we will not. We will go straight to ideas for change:

That just rolls off the tongue. Not to mention making the main campus (if not the whole school) sound like a branch campus. How many premier schools have that many words and two geographic signifiers and/or locations in their name? How about a motto?

We like the Bull U logo (though we do not understand why the U’s do not slant in the same direction on a football helmet. And, unlike the helmets, in recent years the ostensibly gold color on the jerseys is more hummus than gold. We like hummus and we like Bulls football, but we do not think that is the optimal way to combine the two. The allegedly gold part of the jerseys should probably be actually gold-colored.) Frankly, we don’t understand why it is not universal.

And we have to say that the fragmented structure of USF does not help. Is USFSP USF or is it something else? And, if so, how much something else, how much USF? When a high school student gets recruiting messages from USFSP and USF, why shouldn’t they be more confused than from UCF which is a single entity? But that stems from something else: the whole mission of the school is confused because our local officials are confused about what they want for this area – is it regional or is it each city/county first? Is it do something that works or everybody just gets their cut no matter the harm? Is it one region or just a cluster of different pieces stuck near each other?

USF is a fine school that contributes a lot to this area and whose graduates do fine work, but no one should be surprised that there is branding confusion. It just reflects its home and its history.

Walking Violation

There was a very strange article in on WFLA’s website about pedestrians.

Setting aside that crossing the street while talking on a phone is not really a best practice, it is legal to talk on the phone while driving or walking (or standing on a sidewalk, as pedestrians often do). That is not a violation . . . at least as far as we can tell.

Education is fine. We are not going to complain about that. And we are not going to complain about trying to stop people from just walking into the middle of the road nowhere near a crosswalk, which happens far too often. But we don’t know how useful this whole plan is unless the plan is to ticket pedestrians to push them into their cars where they likely will not be ticketed for ignoring pedestrians. No pedestrians, no pedestrian safety problem.

As URBN Tampa Bay pointed out, it would be nicer (and probably more effective) if local officials would actually properly account for pedestrians and cyclists in planning and permitting in the first place. We would also like to see the police could stand on a corner under cover and ticket drivers who ignore all manner of rules to protect pedestrians. After all, pedestrians do have the right of way.

Ybor City – Old Maybe New Again

URBN Tampa Bay has an interesting, if small, item about a slightly out-of-the-way building in Ybor.

The reason this is interesting is that the building housed one of the first clubs/bars in the rebirth of Ybor starting in the 80’s, the Impulse. At some point, there was a major fire, and the building has just sat there since.

It is nice that they want to salvage the façade and save a little history, even if few know it.

This proposal is somewhat a mystery. The architects usually do good work, but the building seems strangely bland. If you read the notes on the rendering, there are different materials used on the façade, including some brick. There even seems to be provision for some canopy, though it is not clear on the drawing. From what we can see on this drawing, the building does not fit Ybor standards. Based on the architects’ other work, we are willing to wait for more details before firming up our opinion, but the design needs to be better than what we have been shown.

Port – You Want Competition

We have said for a while that we think the local ports should work together, if not just unify, so maximize their advantages in the broader competition against other areas. That is unlikely to happen in our political environment. In fact, as seen with fruit imports, there is actually more competition, wasting resources. Well, from Fox13:

Do we think this is also a waste of resources? Yes. Both our ports are behind other state ports in containers and cruises. Arguing amongst themselves is not going to get us anywhere, but neither port seems inclined to pool resources. That is not surprising, but it is unfortunate.

In other news, on a trade website, there was a little article about some smaller ports along Florida’s Gulf Coast. It is worth remembering that there are a number of ports closer to the rest of the country than we are, and there are a number of ports looking to take some business from the area (they don’t care which port). Just another reason not to have counter-productive local bickering.

Meanwhile, in the Rest of the State

There was an interesting article in the Miami Herald about the intersection of tech and media in Miami. It is a rambling, but interesting, article that highlights social media (and other media) growth in Miami. You can read it here. Needless to say, Miami is a bit ahead of us in that field. But what really caught our attention was a quote that encapsulated a really positive attitude that we rarely see here:

These developments are helping Miami fulfill its promise as a tech hub — just as Miami’s tech growth is drawing new media, says Michael Finney, president and CEO of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council.